Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #280 - Mornings

breakfast - 2000

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #280 - Mornings

Hi Mom,

Again, time for some shared content.

As you know I am an avid follower of Warren Ellis. He posted the entry shared below on his MORNING COMPUTER blog yesterday. I am following suit. I doubt that I can be as funny as Ellis, so fair warning, the mundane is ahead.

Most mornings my alarm is set for five a.m. This morning I was lucky enough to come fully awake about 4:15. I use "lucky" in the sarcastic sense.

My wake up music is Brian Eno's Ambient One: Music for Airports.

Normally, I only get the first few measures of the music before I hit snooze. Sometimes, the sound of the CD-loaded clock radio spinning to life is enough to wake me. I hit snooze 3-4 times. This morning I turned off the alarm around 4:30 when I realized I had to pee and so I had to get up.

Usually, I am in the bathroom 10-15 minutes in a sort of morning meditation that I like to do in the dark. When I emerge, I shower the puppy and cat withe love, which involves scratching the belly. Then I change into shorts and a T-shirt from the shorts and a T-shirt which are "pajamas."

First stop is the thermostat. In winter months, I might bump the temperature a degree or two or wait until Liesel gets up. I turn on the kitchen lights, which will be on all day, and dump my water out. The puppy has followed me and returns to the kitchen to give me a hug before we start the pet feeding. BUT first, I like to check the outside temperature on the thermometer in the dining room.

Next, it's the cat's turn. Satchel gets some "cat treats," handful of the cat's food, and then I give the cat fresh water and top off the crunchy niblets. On Wednesdays and Sundays, she also gets a can of some fishy smelling stuff.

Then Satchel gets fed. Again fresh water and a can of her chicken stew. Then I start to assemble morning pills I take with juice, and usually Satchel is done eating before I complete that task. She gives me her look that means "outside" and once I start after her, she trots for the door to the deck out of the bedroom.

Pills, juice, coffee with soy milk, granola bar and to the office. ESPN goes on the TV.

Yahoo is the home page. I close anything open from the night before and proceed to look at all box scores, which right now are BOTH NBA basketball and Major League Baseball. Soon, I will just look at Baseball. Mainly, I am skimming for two things: how did my fantasy players do and who is hot and may be worth a pick up.

After box scores, it's fantasy line ups, which is now both sports, but as of Wednesday (tomorrow) will be just Baseball.

Next, I check email and do some blog work. I have found I am more productive if I start my blogs and then start work, taking blog breaks to finish, which is what I am doing right now. This is a blog break after doing some work.

This morning, I read some blogs, which is how I found the Morning Computer item. I even looked at some cartoons, which I think will be a new thing.

Sometimes, I go through emails, otherwise it's a glance to see what I will have to deal with later, much like Ellis, except that I do not port off the email to virtual bins.

At some point, the TV goes off, but it could come back later while working.

Ellis' morning inspires me to look outside more, to soak in the sun or feel the breeze. It's funny that we both have chickens. Speaking of which, it is time to let them out to roam the yard.

I have written about my to-do list before. I start to knock down the items. Many items are daily. I have to check five emails! Then it's work and blogging and laundry and classes and all that all day until I need to stop and rest the mind by reading or I will go crazy.

Here's what Warren does...

FROM THE MORNING COMPUTER BY WARREN ELLIS:


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THE MORNING COMPUTER MORNING PROCESS

• Woken by alarm sometime before noon. Alarm is currently “Morning Sun” by Holly Herndon
• Pick up phone, skim email and app messages, send a couple of Snapchat messages from bed if warranted, press the button that signals to Twitter that I’m alive if I feel like it.
• Stagger downstairs while dodging murderous cats who want me to fall downstairs and die so they can eat me
• Hit coffee machine until gives coffee
• Sit outdoors for an hour with coffee and cigarettes, listening to the news podcasts and some calming music podcasts if required, skimming the news on Twitter and the feeds, reading the Guardian, dealing with whatever mail that needs dealing with that I can solve from my phone. If it’s warm enough, the laptop comes outside too – mornings are best for prose of some kind, not scripts. Earbuds in, so I can’t hear the chickens, who are screaming that they want me to fall over and die so they can eat me
• Mark up the things that’ll go out to my private list later, process events into the calendar
• Take five minutes to just look at the world and the sky.
• And the seagulls who wheel overhead, waiting for me to fall over and die so they can eat me

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.


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- Days ago = 282 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1604.12 - 10:41


NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.